A Southern train for the Western Region...

I have been making up a train of Southern Region coaches for a Bournemouth-Birkenhead express. To date, all are the super-detailed and inexpensive Hornby Maunsell coaches, some modified and all resprayed. Normally I only need spray over the 'blood', but sometimes the 'custard' needs attention too. Glazing was easily removed thank goodness. Below is a corridor first straight out of the box....
The red was masked off just above the waist lining and my cream sprayed on. Then the cream was masked just below the lining and the red sprayed on. I decant Halfords Ford Rosso Red into my spraygun for the carmine red. Next, the whole sides were masked and the roof and ends sprayed matt black. While the paint was still wet, I gave the black a light spray over with my diluted 'road-dust' rust colour. The chassis was done at the same time.

After the insignia was applied (HMRS Methfix), the handles, hinges and door stops were picked out. The gutter was picked out in carmine red using a draughtmans ruling-pen, then the glazing was glued back in place. The coach is supposed to represent clean condition although the roof has gone the usual soot colour that gathered so quickly when almost all trains were steam-hauled...

I received as a gift from a friend a Hornby Maunsell push-pull set. The set contained a brake compo driving trailer to D2407 that had been converted from a D2403 brake composite and an open second. I had no use for a S.Region motor train set, but the driving trailer looked tasty and my thoughts turned to back-engineering it into a normal corridor brake composite....
The next move was to purchase a secondhand Maunsell brake third for its duckets and brake end. All glazing was removed and I carefully cut off the drivers compartment up to the double doors....
The same was done to the donor coach and the end and duckets glued to the coach with Mekpak…..
"Rivets" to match the rivetted construction of the 1936 form of construction were added with the point of a dart...
The whole coach was sprayed with Halfords grey Plastic Primer after masking off the lettering on the ends....
After spraying on the BR cream, I ruled a black line at the waist and brushed on Mascol seeing as there was no way of getting masking tape to work effectively on its own over the handles and door stops.....
The roof and ends were sprayed matt black and weathered. Insignia is HMRS 'Methfix'.....
The finished article. These coaches introduced frame-less droplights and a flush finish. Gone were the external wooden window bolections to hold the glazing in place. Rivets were also a prominent feature at the time....
It is a shame Hornby hasn't done this 'back-engineering' itself to give collectors a useful brake compo....

On page 79 in 'Rails to North Wales' (By S D Wainwright), a brake compo (Set 168) and brake third are seen at Chester in September 1954 being removed from a through train from Margate because Birkenhead could not accommodate more than eight coaches. The brake compo clearly has a Pullman gangway.

I've just checked the bible David Gould's Maunsell's S.R. Steam Passenger Stock 1923-1939 and set 459 was earmarked for the Bournemouth/Birkenhead service made up of 6 coaches with a loose dining car.

The set was Third brake (a) 3666; Third 840; Compo 5587; Dining 7940; Compo 5589; Third 841, Third brake (a) 3667.

The third brakes with (a) had the British Standard gangway conversion plate at the outer brake end. Once in BR hands they had a propensity to break up sets into loose carriages, then reform sets. It just takes time to plod through the records.

Effectively any SR sets which ran on through services to the WR or LMR had British Standard gangway conversion plates and those to the ER did not as they used Pullman gangways.

I used to model the Southern way back in my 4mm days and even then I had to be careful with the sets to ensure I had the correct ones for the Central and Eastern sections.

On page 79 in 'Rails to North Wales' (By S D Wainwright), a brake compo (Set 168) and brake third are seen at Chester in September 1954 being removed from a through train from Margate because Birkenhead could not accommodate more than eight coaches. The brake compo clearly has a Pullman gangway.

Click to expand...

Brake Compo 6659 was loose until 11/1960 when it was formed into set 168 (paired with Third brake 2776). SR coaching stock, sets and loose carriages is a minefield in itself .

Many thanks Yorkshire Dave; Six coach trains are my limit (to suit the compression of the layout) and so I had used a corridor first to replace the two corridor composites. This is the brake third No. 3667 as fitted this morning with a British Standard gangway. Holes left in the coach end after removal of Pullman gangway was plated over with the thinnest thickness of Plastikard....

Two more for Set 168. S840S was one of the earliest high-window Maunsell Corridor Thirds completed in August 1929 to Dia. 2001....
I bought a quarter-pint of green cellulose specially for these SR coaches and tinted it to suit. I think I just like painting things! S841S carries a slightly lighter shade of Malachite and retains its SR window stickers. I am modelling circa 1953, some years before S.Region Loco-Hauled Stock Green was adopted.

Conflicting information in SR coach publications has led me to go off photographic evidence rather than the written word. No. 7940 and 7943 were said to be have been refurbished in 1938 for the Bournemouth Limited and that both were transferred to departmental stock in July 1948. 794o was said to be in a Birkenhead working in the 1950's and 7943 is illustrated in service in 1960. So I have modeled S 7866 in malachite with Bullied style insignia as per a picture in one book captioned as running like that in June 1951....

I forgot to mention the wooden window bolections are moulded as part of the glazing on the dining car and need to be painted in body colour. This was done in green on the above coach, but i also did one in BR red & cream livery. The frames are shown removed after picking out the bolections in cream paint....
Glazing glued back in place after the coach was repainted....
I thought at the time I didn't need this coach and donated it to a pal's layout. Since then I have wished I kept it....

This is the Southern Region Set 168 now it is completed. Starting at the back of the train is brake third 3667, Third 840, Third 841, Diner 7866, Composite 5589 and brake composite 6688. The set is reduced in length by replacing a composite and brake third with a brake composite. It is all to do with linear reduction of the whole Ruabon complex. But until it is built, it was convenient to pose the train at Carrog. The green coaches are assumed to be SR malachite with BR numbers.